Bahrain World Trade Center

The Bahrain World Trade Center is a 240 meters high twin tower located in Manama, Bahrain.
This tower was opened in 2008.The towers were built in 2008 by the multi-national architectural
firm Atkins. The chief architect of this project was Shaun Kila. The total cost of this project was
150 million USD. The tower consists of 50 floors. It is one of the most iconic structures in the
world. It is the first skyscraper in the world to integrate wind turbines into its design. This 50-
floor structure is constructed in close proximity to the King Faisal Highway, near popular
landmarks such as the towers of BFH, NBB, Abraj Al Lulu and the scenic Pearl Roundabout. It
currently ranks as the second tallest building in Bahrain, after the twin towers of the Bahrain
Financial Harbor. The concept design of the Bahrain World Trade Center towers was inspired by
the traditional Arabian ‘wind towers’ in that the very shape of the buildings harnesses the
unobstructed prevailing onshore breeze from the Gulf, providing a renewable source of energy
for the project.

Three 29-meter diameter horizontal axis wind turbines are mounted on bridge structures between
the sail shaped towers, providing a renewable source of energy for the project. In addition to the
office towers, the development includes an extension to the existing retail mall, new restaurants
and cafes, refurbishment of the adjacent 5-star hotel and 1,700 parking spaces. The twin towers
are framed predominantly in reinforced concrete, with structural steelwork used for the clad steel
spire, panoramic lift enclosure and mezzanine floors. There are 45 floors (excluding mezzanines)
from the ground floor of the podium, as well as a 4.5-metre-deep single storey basement. The
two towers are linked via three skybridges, each holding a 225KW wind turbine, totaling to
675kW of wind power production. Each of these towers is aligned north, which is the direction
from which air from Persian Gulf blows in. This was confirmed by wind tunnel tests, which
showed that the buildings create an S-shaped flow, ensuring that any wind coming within a 45°
angle to either side of the central axis will create a wind stream that remains perpendicular to the
turbines. This significantly increases their potential to generate electricity. The wind turbines are
expected to provide 11% to 15% of the towers' total power consumption, or approximately 1.1 to
1.3 GWh a year. The total Area of the building is 1291699 sq. ft. The maximum beam length
used is 26 ft. The building dead load is assumed as 675x10^6 lbs. 18000 tons of steel is used in
the construction of building while 120000 m^3 of concrete is poured. For the cladding sections,
24000m^3 of aluminum is used. The wind turbines weigh 11 tons each. The maximum wind load
to be expected on the building would be in the case of a hurricane where winds would be 252
km/hr. which is the equivalence of 62.8 PSF.

The aim of this project was to show the world that the oil producing countries such as Bahrain,
Dubai etc. also have plans to shift their focus towards renewable energy and are considering
sustainable and green buildings in the future.
The wind climate in this region can be used for harnessing wind energy hence the idea behind
the project. The two towers are placed on a podium, 3 stories high, that sits below grade and
houses the entertainment complex that includes restaurants, a shopping center and parking
complex.Each of the 34-story towers houses offices and a watchtower on the 42nd floor. Each
tower is visually anchored to the ground by a concertina of curved, sail-like forms. With
elliptical floor plans, the towers are linked by three bridges spanning over 30 m with a 29-m-dia
wind turbine at their centers. In plan, the sail profiles of the two towers funnel the onshore breeze
between them as well as creating lift behind, thus further accelerating the wind velocity between
the twin structures. And because it’s on the sea front, little surface resistance of the surrounding
will make the positioning of the site in that terrain is perfect for this design.
The towers taper as they rise because of which the tunneling effect is reduced. This counters the
increasing wind speed with height and make the conditions around the turbines roughly the
same. Extensive wind tunnel modeling that was latterly validated by CFD modeling, proved that
the incoming wind is in effect deflected by the towers in the form of an S-shaped streamline
which passes through the space between the towers at an angle within the wind skew tolerance of
the wind turbine. 20 years of wind data was collected, and 199 different load combination were
used with maximum wind speed of 252 km/h.

Regarding renewable energy, the building incorporates many passive energy reduction measures
like buffer spaces between the external environment and air-conditioned spaces, deep gravel
roofs in some locations that provide kinetic insulation, significant proportion of projectile
shading to external glass facades, Balconies to the sloping elevations with overhangs to provide
shading, Where shading is not provided to glazing, a high quality solar glass is used with low
shading co-efficient to minimize solar gains, enhanced thermal insulation for opaque fabric
elements. Dense concrete core and floor slabs presented to the internal environment in a manner
that will level loads and reduce peak demand with associated reductions in air and chilled water
transport systems. Variable volume chilled water pumping that will operate with significantly
less pump power at part loads than conventional constant volume pumping. Dual drainage
systems that segregate foul and waste water and allow grey water recycling to be added at a later
date. Reflection pools at building entrances to provide local evaporative cooling and extensive
landscaping to reduce site albedo, generate C02 and provide shading to on grade car parks.
The turbines were installed using nacelles which were lifted onto the bridges using the main
tower crane. This was done in parallel with the installation of the three bridges. When all three
nacelles were installed the rotors were installed, again using the main tower crane. The three
blades used for each rotor were assembled on ground and the entire rotor was lifted into its final
position and bolted to the main shaft. The bridges are ovoid in section for aerodynamic purposes
and are relatively complex structures because they incorporate maintenance free bearings where
they connect to the buildings to allow the towers to move 0.5m relative to each other. In addition,
the bridges that span 31.7m and support a nacelle with a mass of 11 tons have been designed to
withstand and absorb wind induced vibration and vibrations induced by both an operating and
“standstill” turbine. They have been mounted at 60m, 120m and 180m. Analysis by the bridge
designer has been undertaken to estimate the natural frequency of the bridge and to ensure it does
not conflict with the frequency of exciting vibrations of itself or the building. Further precautions
are included in the design to allow the bridge to be damped, if in practice vibrations are found to
be problematic during commissioning. These precautions include the facility in the design to add
spoilers to the bridge and to adjust the tuned mass damper. The bridge is a shallow V-shape in
plan (173º) to take account of blade deflection during extreme operating conditions and to afford
adequate clearance and thus avoid blade strike, blade clearance to the bridge of 1.12m is
achieved. The worst scenario is with blade tips extended giving a factor of 1.35 safety margin.
When wind speeds do exceed safe limits (20m/s) the turbines cut-out and then brake to a
standstill.

Considering the structural system, various ideas were taken into consideration. The twin towers
are in a ‘V’ formation, typically mirrored about their axis of symmetry. There are some
differences in plan over the height of the podium. The primary structure comprises main and
secondary reinforced concrete cores, the main core housing lifts, escape stairs, plant rooms and
toilets and the secondary core housing an escape stair and electrical/telecoms rooms. The floor
plates typically having a storey height of 3.6 meters and are framed with reinforced vertical
concrete columns on an 8.0m grid and raking columns which follow the sloping face of the
building as it tapers in elevation. The wind load on the towers is predominantly resisted by the
main concrete core. About the weak axis, the secondary core relieves some of the load on the
main core, with load transfer between the two cores occurring in the vicinity of the 20th to 24th
floor levels. At the upper levels the secondary core first terminates, and the main core then
extends to the height of the highest office floor. When this core also terminates, the panoramic
lift core extends further stabilizing the duplex offices and viewing gallery at a higher level.
Above this height the top clad section of the building is framed in lattice steelwork construction
to reduce weight. The columns are typically square or rectangular, either 1000mm x 1000mm, or
1000mm x 800mm where they are less heavily loaded. Up to Level 18, where the column loads
are typically compressive, Grade C60/20 concrete is used to avoid the need for a larger column
size. Above this level the loads have reduced, and the concrete grade is reduced to C45/20.
The design of the core walls is influenced by the need to provide stiffness and reduce sway
deflections. The thickness of the primary walls reduces from typically 600mm at basement level
(750mm maximum) to 400mm at the upper floor levels. Secondary walls around lift shafts and
within stair cores are a constant 300mm thickness over their full height. At four locations on
plan, coupling beams link the core areas either side of the main corridor. These coupling
beams are 750mm deep and because of the relatively high stresses due to interaction between the
cores, all services pass beneath the beams in a dedicated services zone agreed with the M&E
engineers and no penetrations for services through the beams were permitted.
For the floor system, 150 mm prestressed hollow core units are used in slab with a 75mm
structural topping on beams at each 8 meters. The advantages of using a hollow core is that it is
relatively lightweight with less reinforcement compared to a flat slab. In this system Beam strips
provide supports for edge cantilevers and re-entrant corners. Floor slabs in the core areas are
typically in situ concrete and stair flights are of precast concrete construction taking advantage of
the accuracy of offsite precasting

Etabs modeling was performed to check for torsional irregularity in the building. Data was also collected
for different modes for earthquake analysis. Below some details are given the tables.
In first floors unsymmetrical floor plans will happen since the edge part of the towers contain the
main core then torsion irregularity will happen but it will be resisted by piles.
As floor area get decreased in upper floors then torsion problem would decrease.
Podium effect
Third podium floor’s beams should be designed as beam column since they will get high axial
force caused by the long cantilever sway.
Some stories might have soft story irregularity because of sudden increasement in column’s
Length then higher deformation would happen=12EI/L^3
Bahrain Island is situated on the Arabian Plate which has been considered to be far from the
earthquake sources which are mainly located near the tectonics plate boundaries. The plate
boundary between Arabian Plate and Eurasian Plate is situated in Iran which is around 200 to
300 km away from Bahrain. According to uniform Building Code 1997, Bahrain is in Seismic
Zone 1. It has seismic zone factor Z of 0.075. The soil type is SD which is medium dense soil
From this figure, it can be seen that the ground motion parameters at the ground surface are
strongly affected by the condition of the soil deposit overlying the bedrock. The implication of
this phenomenon is that the seismic load would be different for the same structures with different
soil characteristics. The soft soil layer tends to give greater base shear coefficient compared to
the stiff soil layer.

The site is formed on reclaimed land comprising loose to medium dense fine silty sand. The
depth of the fill above the sea bed ranges from 2.5m to 3.5m. Groundwater was observed at
around 1.8m depth. The extreme climate in Bahrain and the presence of Chloride and sulphates
in the ground and atmosphere require special precautions to avoid problems with durability of
concrete and steel structures. For concrete structures durability was achieved by adopting a
combination of the following measures. Specifying high Quality, dense Concrete, using low
water/cement ratio, proper compacting and curing and providing sufficient cover.

Each tower has a separate continuous piled raft foundation at basement level. The raft slabs vary
in thickness. The thickest is located beneath the main core. Beneath the main core the raft
thickness is 3 meters and the piles are 1.2 meters diameter and are very closely spaced. The safe
working load is 18 MN. The thickness of the rafts reduces with distance away from the main
core to 2 meters and the piles become 1.05 meters in diameter and they are widely spaced. The
safe working load is 8MN. The foundation located under the main core would be the strongest
because this is where the majority of the loads will be transferred to. Due to the tapering of the
tower, the foundation can be decreased in strength with distance away from the main core
because the transfer of the load will be much smaller.
The loads acting on the piles are predominantly dead loads, live loads and wind loads. These act
in combination to generate maximum and minimum pile loads. Individual piles were modelled in
the finite element analysis as vertical springs. Service trenches were avoided in the raft slabs, but
allowance was made for ducts within the depths for cabling. External protection was provided to
the raft slabs by a two-layer sbs modified bitumen membrane tanking system.

BTM BituProof Y, first layer membrane used on the foundation bed of system (under the raft), is
a superior quality membrane with reinforced elastomeric modified bitumen and high strength
special polyester reinforcement side laps and end laps are torched and it’s upper surface ensures
perfect adherence to BTM BituProof Protector which is applied on top of Y Horizontal.

Mustafa Banzaroğlu 114206033

Beshir Jemieh 115206009
Ismail Haggag 115206123
Kashif Afridi 115205075
Resources
https://bahrainwtc.wordpress.com/analysis-description-2/
https://www.civilax.com/bahrain-world-trade-center/
http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/bahrain-world-trade-center-
1/998
http://global.ctbuh.org/resources/presentations/bahrain-world-trade-
center-harnessing-wind-energy-a-post-occupancy-evaluation.pdf
https://www.atkinsglobal.com/en-gb/projects/bahrain-world-trade-center
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227787595_Bahrain_World_T
rade_Center_BWTC_The_first_large-
scale_integration_of_wind_turbines_in_a_building
“World Trade Centre Bahrain – Megastructures Documentary – National
Geographic Documentary.” YouTube. YouTube, 29 May 2013. Web. 06
Apr. 2014
CTBUH. “Building Case Study.” Council of Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat, n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

Killa, S. and Smith, R. S.2008. Harnessing Energy in Tall Buildings:

Bahrain World Trade Center and Beyond.